Artemis' Apprentice - The End of Olympus - Inspired By Rick Riordan - Book 1 - Chapter 1
Back to the chapter page: Chapter 1: Perseus Jackson I'm not necessarily what you would call a ‘morning’ person. I wasn’t a ‘night’ person either if that was a thing. Waking up to the consistent howling of wolves, was like waking up to nails on a chalkboard. The howls came from somewhere outside, deep within the woods, beyond the perimeter line. The first idea that came to my mind was Lupa- the she-wolf goddess who guided Roman campers to Camp Jupiter. Perhaps she’s having a rough night. I turned over in my bed and tried to go back to sleep. Still, the howls persisted, clawing the insides of my ears. From somewhere in the corner, Annabeth groaned. I could hear her tossing and turning, trying to ignore it as well. I threw my pillow over my head and moaned. Finally, tired of the howling of wolves and the grumbles from my desperate girlfriend, I crawled out of bed and looked out our dormitory’s bay window At night, New Rome was lifeless. The grass was clean and waved in the wind, and the tall oak trees of the woods around towered over our college building. The forest was so thick, I couldn’t find the source of the howling. Dang, my sea navigation would have been great for this. I jumped out of my skin when someone placed their cold hand on my shoulder. I turned around to see Annabeth laughing, her stormy eyes shining with amusement, “Did I scare you, seaweed brain?” she teased. “Very funny, wise girl,” I said and reached out to pick up a loose strand of her blonde hair. She blushed as I tucked it back behind her ear and then gave her a flashy grin. She raised an eyebrow. “Is that a new teeth whitener you're using?” I rolled my eyes, and Annabeth laughed slightly with her hand over her mouth. Her laughter was cut off by another piercing howl, and we both directed our gaze back to the window. The wind from the north enforced the howl. “Boreas is taking every chance he gets for revenge” I grumbled, “I mean, we did kill his daughter.” “You mean we killed her twice” Annabeth corrected. “Whatever, Wise Girl,” I said, “But I can’t sleep, and I have an essay tomorrow that I'm going to flunk without my beauty-rest.” Annabeth snorted. I jumped again as another howl pierced the night. “Come on Annabeth” I pulled my ballpoint pen out of my pocket and flipped off the cap. The pen began to stretch until it was two feet of solid imperial gold, “Let's see the important reason why Lupa is waking up half the country.” Annabeth followed me as we walked down the dark hallways of New Rome University, led by the faint glow of Riptide. I began to hear the echoes of voices floating down the hallways, getting louder as we approached the gardens. “I guess we weren’t the only one’s woken up” I sighed. “I'm surprised you didn’t sleep through that howling,” Annabeth noted, “I could barely wake you up this morning.” I paused, “And I had a good reason to not wake up.” Annabeth giggled. “What? It's Sunday!” I protested. We reached the end of the dormitory hallways that was flanked with two glass doors. I re-capped Riptide back to a ballpoint pen and trudged outside with Annabeth on my heels. The garden was nice during the day, and when it wasn’t crowded. Brick pedestals rose out of the ground in curves, aligning to make a design. Roses and bluebells grew from the flower beds. Right now, because of the crowd, I could barely make out the place. A lot of other people were woken up by Lupa. A group of demigods all in their pajamas were all looking around and demanding answers. Most were yawning and groaning in annoyance. Teachers were shouting orders and Terminus was barking at college kids to back up. We joined the crowd of demigods and became one with the stampede. Dang, Blackjack would love my usage of horse vocabulary. We slowly made our way to the front of the group, dodging cranky kids. I'm pretty sure I stepped on a piece of gum. “Hey, Percy! Annabeth!” I turned to my left to see Piper making there way towards us. Ms. Beauty queen was wearing a simple white-sleeved v-neck shirt with camo shorts. She had completely forgotten shoes. “Hey, Piper” I called. Piper was about the size of Annabeth, just a little shorter than me. “Do you know what’s going on?” she asked. I scratched my neck, “I honestly don’t know. But I think it has something to do with Lupa, cause you know, the howling wolves” Annabeth nodded warily. Now that we were at the head of the pack, we could see Terminus with both of his missing arms shouting at us, “Get back! Get back!” All the teens around us stumbled in confusion and tried to get a look at what Terminus was blocking us to see. Howl’s pierced the night again, and everyone fell silent. “Get back!” Terminus looked more desperate, and I could hear the fear in his voice. “Go back to sleep! There is nothing to see!” The group backed up a bit but stayed didn’t move further. Everyone was too anxious to see what was wrong. “GET BACK!” Terminus shouted, his voice so loud and powerful it shook the area. I felt a vibration of air pound against me as his words hit my ears. Piper stumbled back, but Annabeth, thank the gods for her reflexes, caught her quickly and set her back on her feet as she blushed with embarrassment. About half of the group, frightened by the noise, stumbled back in the building. The other half pressed back against the garden doors. Terminus scowled as he gazed among the crowd of demigods. Then, of course, he had to look at me. “Ah, Perseus Jackson” he bellowed, “Always so persistent. Do me a favor and get everyone inside with a tidal wave because this is official godly business.” Official godly business? What would the gods be doing in New Rome? I sighed, “You can’t expect me to splash a bunch of demigods when there's no water around.” Terminus roared in rage. “I was pointing to the hose you fool! If I had arms you would have seen that!” Another howl, coming from closer in the thicket. Terminus looked worried, or on the verge of raging. He looked almost frightened, a weird thing for a statue. “Go to you're beds right now” he threatened through seethed teeth, “Or I will personally make sure that all you're grades for the first trimester are F’s”. That got all of our attention. The whole group turned and shuffled back inside wearily, muttering about how bad our grades were already. Annabeth and I trudged inside, the doors closing at our heels. “ What’s going on” I mumbled to Annabeth. “I don’t know,” she said, “But I intend on finding out.” She looked too serious, so I peck at her, and she swatted me away like a bird. “Seaweed brain!” The next day it only got worse. The whole gardens were off-limits, leaving us helplessly trapped inside, desperate for the sun. We took our history tests, taught by Augustus, a former Roman statesman who was the son of Minerva. “Now now” he muttered as he checked that the blinds were closed again. “Don’t focus on the garden, focus on you're testing.” He waved a figure in the air, “They are important for you're grades.” Demigods grumbled unhappily and started working, scribbling answers on sprawled pieces of paper. Annabeth sat in the seat next to me and shot me a nasty look as I gazed at her. “Don't you dare copy my answers again, Seaweed brain” she snapped quietly, ‘Or I will personally see that seaweed gets stuffed where you're brain should be.” I sighed and looked at the piece of torture in front of me. ‘How long did the Roman empire last?’ I pondered the question, and then realized it was a bubble answer. I loved bubble answers, and not just because I'm the son of Poseidon. I filled in the one I thought was right, 500 years. I was looking at the next answer when the howls chorused again. Augustus’ face went white. Every demigod in the room directed there gaze to the closed blinds. Augustus ran over to the blinds to check that they were closed again. “Stop trying to look at the garden” he hissed, “It is official godly business that you do not need to know about.” “Why can’t we know about it?” A demigod asked. He had black hair and dark eyes. Probably a son of Nemesis, “I mean, we all deserve to know.” The demigods around him bobbed their heads in approval. Augustus shook his head angrily. “I don't even know about it! The one that knows what’s going on is the gods!” he shook his head again, “I honestly don’t even want to know why the gods are in New Rome.” Demigods around me grumbled and resumed there tests glumly. “This isn’t right” I mumbled to Annabeth. She nodded, “I wonder what’s wrong.” By lunchtime, nothing had changed much. The big glass paneled wall that looked out to the garden had been blocked by a large curtain, leaving the cafeteria dark and musty. The air was damp and cold and settled over us like a blanket. Everyone conversed in muffled conversations. I sat at the end of a table with Annabeth and Piper. They all looked worried and glanced at the curtain warily. “You know, I'm starting to get freaked out by this” Piper sighed, “I just wish I knew what was happening.” Annabeth nodded, “Something doesn’t feel right.” “And it's something to do with the gods,” Annabeth agreed. Piper bit into her PB&J and chewed it softly. The air hung tensely between us all as we pondered what was happening. I took a bite of a blue cookie my mom had sent me. “Also, the roof is blocked off,” she said, “I check up there earlier to see if I could view what was happening. The teachers had roped it off and locked it tight. No one’s getting out.” We all sat and ate our lunch in silence from there. Why is this happening now- Another howl split the air. A few demigods yelped. A guy at the table next to us jumped so high he fell off the chair and landed head first on the floor. Teachers came swarming in and rushed the kids out of the cafeteria. They led us out quickly and hastily and sadly making me leave the remains of my blue cookie on the table. The teachers lead us down the hall and then shut the lunchroom doors. I lost Annabeth somewhere in the group. I stuck up my hand to hope she’d see it. Out of nowhere, Annabeth tackled me into a wall. I instantly got into fighting mode. I thrust Riptide out of my pocket and was about to uncap it. “Dude? What are you doing?” I asked. Annabeth smiled apologetically, “Do you really want to know what’s going on?” I nodded warily. Annabeth checked over her shoulder to make sure no one was listening. Then she looked back to me. “I'm going to sneak out tonight” she confessed, “I wanted to know if you wanted to come with me to check it out.” My heart did a 360°. “You're going to sneak out?” I whispered back, “How?” Annabeth smiled mischievously, “At midnight I’m planning on sneaking out the front and climbing over the wall guarding the garden” she paused, “I think there's a pond out front you could use, and I sorta need your help.” I smiled. I was dying for some action after weeks being cooped up studying for my SAT. I needed some excitement. “I'm in,” I told her. “Great” Annabeth smiled, “Just don’t tell Piper. We really don't need her worrying.” I nodded. As much as I liked Piper, somethings we better to tell after they happened. “So it's agreed,” Annabeth said, “We will leave at midnight.” Forward to the next chapter: